Large earth moving equipment is used at construction and excavation sites to add earth to or remove earth from the sites. Wheel loaders have been designed that move as much as 30 cubic yards of material in one bucket load to fill a 120 cubic yard dump truck in just four bucket loads. The size of the equipment is mammoth in scope, with the operator cab of the vehicles being 15-20 feet in the air and having access provided by stairways. This equipment, like other machines, uses many different fluids to power the equipment and ensure that parts move relative to each other without excessive wear and generation of heat. Such fluids include gasoline, diesel or other fuels, oil for the engine, steering system and implement manipulation, engine coolant, grease, windshield washer fluid and the like.
The fluids used in the equipment must be maintained at appropriate levels for the equipment to operate and to avoid damaging the mechanical components. Typically, the operator cab is provided with gauges for the operator to monitor the fluid levels during operation of the equipment. Additionally, maintenance personnel periodically inspect the equipment, including monitoring the fluid levels, to ensure that the equipment is operating properly. In these types of machines, for convenience of servicing the equipment, fluid level monitoring systems are provided at ground level. The fluid level monitoring systems allow the maintenance workers to avoid scaling the machine to get to the instruments in the operator cab, and instead allow the workers to remain on the ground where the supplies of fluid are located. Previous fluid level monitoring systems have included indicator lights for signaling when fluids are low and, for some fluids, quick fill and drainage ports allowing replenishment of the fluids at the fluid level monitoring system. Despite the information from the indicator lights, the maintenance worker must still know or guess as to the appropriate fluid brand, specifications and amount of fluid to be added. Therefore, a need exists for improved fluid level monitoring system configurations providing additional information for monitoring fluid levels and replenishing fluids without consulting additional external resources.